


The Golden Age of Radio

by ckret2



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Afterlife, Alastor is Bad at Feelings (Hazbin Hotel), Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Gen, Light Angst, Monologue, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23167249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ckret2/pseuds/ckret2
Summary: Have you heard the term “the Golden Age of Radio”? I just learned the term myself. Ironic that it took me, of all people, so long to hear it—but I’m sure it was being used for quite some time before it had an opportunity to filter down here. One of those concepts that came out of the living world, you see. Naturally, since that’s where the Golden Age actually happened! 1930 to 1960 it was, apparently. The era when radio was at its height—America’s main source for news, entertainment, and music.I only lived for ten percent of it.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 81





	The Golden Age of Radio

**Author's Note:**

> do you ever get seized by the irresistible urge to write a 700-word monologue from some obnoxious radio-obsessed serial-killing dead dude’s perspective just because you learned a new phrase on wikipedia

Have you heard the term “the Golden Age of Radio”? I just learned the term myself. Ironic that it took me, of all people, so long to hear it—but I’m sure it was being used for quite some time before it had an opportunity to filter down here. One of those concepts that came out of the living world, you see. Naturally, since that’s where the Golden Age actually happened! 1930 to 1960 it was, apparently. The era when radio was at its height—America’s main source for news, entertainment, and music.

I only lived for ten percent of it.

Think of that. Ten percent. My very name is “the Radio Demon.” I belong to the radio. And I only saw the first ten percent of its golden years.

I don’t discuss my mortal personas much. Not because they’re any great secret, of course—certainly they’re nothing to be ashamed of—but I simply… prefer to keep the people I was back then separate from what I am now. But, you know, I was on the radio before I died. That’s not just a gimmick I picked up down here; I’ve always been tied to the radio. And I was famous. Not coast to coast, nothing like that—but in Louisiana, at least. And at night, you could hear my voice from Texas to Florida and all the way up to Tennessee.

I only died in my thirties. If I’d lived twice as long—stayed in the industry, retired late… and I certainly would have retired late, I’m sure I wouldn’t have wanted to retire at all…

Imagine that. Getting to see the whole Golden Age of Radio. Getting to be a part of it. To help shape it.

There are no golden ages in Hell.

I died… Hm, I wonder how many people I’ve told! Few enough to count on one hand, I’m sure. You can keep this under your hat, can’t you? I do enjoy having my mystique, I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to be a part of it, won’t you? So, between you and me—I died looking for a human being to murder for fun. It wouldn’t have been my first time. Not by a long shot. If I’d seen him before he saw me, I might’ve killed him. But he got me. Call that divine retribution, dramatic irony, I don’t know.

If I hadn’t been out there that day looking for a man to kill, I could’ve seen the whole thing. All thirty years of it.

Make no mistake—I’m proud of my life, looking back on it. I had fun. A lot more fun than most people ever get around to, I think. I was on the cutting edge of communication technology. I was lucky to live when I did. I survived the world at its absolute worst and experienced it at its absolute best—from French trenches to Harlem nightlife. I learned to play four instruments! And sing! I got famous not once but twice—one time as a radio star and the other time as a murderer, and nobody ever put the two together—now, how many people can say that? I had a hell of a time. And I don’t regret a minute of it.

Usually.

But… sometimes, I do think about how much of it I missed out on. How much time I lost. How much more I could have done. Don’t we all? Don’t we all wonder, every now and then, what’s going on up there? Don’t we all hear about things that happened five, ten, twenty years after we died, and think about what we would have had to do differently in order to have seen that?

Do you think those fellows up in Heaven have thoughts like that? Or when they hear about what the living world’s up to, do they go “thank God I don’t have to deal with that mess anymore”?

If I’d changed that one day, I could have had another thirty years. Maybe fifty years. Who knows? I guess I never will.

The Golden Age of Radio, huh.

I wonder what it was like.

**Author's Note:**

> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/612716363740594176/the-golden-age-of-radio). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


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